CentOS 7 Desktop Build

Tutorial: Setup CentOS 7 as an everyday desktop

You can use CentOS 7 as an everyday desktop not just a server. This guide is aimed at building a minimalistic bare essentials build for home office / business users.

Install OS:

• Download the latest CentOS 7 minimal ISO and burn to CD / USB Stick
• Boot up your machine and choose to Install CentOS 7
• Go through the wizard
• The only options to look at would be the partition, machine name and username password. (click on vid for some guidance)

Additional Repo breakdown

Fast track bug, ver and security updates by enabling
vi /etc/yum.repos.d/CentOS-fasttrack.repo
enabled=1

Add Google chrome
vi /etc/yum.repos.d/google-chrome.repo
[google-chrome]
name=google-chrome
baseurl=http://dl.google.com/linux/chrome/rpm/stable/$basearch
enabled=1
gpgcheck=1
gpgkey=https://dl-ssl.google.com/linux/linux_signing_key.pub

Add additional Driver support
rpm -Uvh http://www.elrepo.org/elrepo-release-7.0-2.el7.elrepo.noarch.rpm

Add enterprise Linux and nux repos
yum -y install centos-release-scl epel-release && rpm -Uvh http://li.nux.ro/download/nux/dextop/el7/x86_64/nux-dextop-release-0-5.el7.nux.noarch.rpm

(Optional) Server side packages:
Virtualisation SIG
yum install centos-release-qemu-ev.noarch

Application Install and desktop configuration
yum groupinstall "Base" -y
yum groupinstall "X Window System" -y
yum install gnome-classic-session gnome-terminal nautilus-open-terminal control-center liberation-mono-fonts cups gnome-calculator evince eog gedit firefox google-chrome-stable NetworkManager networkmanager-wifi ntfs-3g gnome-tweak-tool bash-completion bash-completion-extras -y

(Optional apps - Everyday useful apps)
yum groupinstall "Office Suite and Productivity" -y
yum install audacity gimp handbrake -y

Multimedia Support
yum install totem gstreamer1-plugins-base gstreamer1-plugins-base-devel gstreamer1-devel gstreamer1-plugins-good gstreamer-plugin-crystalhd  gstreamer1-plugins-bad-free gstreamer1-plugins-bad-free-devel gstreamer1-libav gstreamer1-vaapi gstreamer1-vaapi-devel gstreamer-plugins-base-tools gstreamer-tools.x86_64 PackageKit-gstreamer-plugin dirac flac libtheora libvorbis libvpx wavpack libv4l gavl libbluray libdv libmpcdec compat-libstdc++-33 gstreamer gstreamer-plugins-bad-free gstreamer-plugins-bad-free-devel gstreamer-plugins-base gstreamer-plugins-base-devel gstreamer-plugins-good gstreamer-python gstreamer-python-devel compat-libstdc++-33 gstreamer1-plugins-bad-free-extras gstreamer1-plugins-bad-freeworld gstreamer1-plugins-base-tools gstreamer1-plugins-good-extras gstreamer1-plugins-ugly gstreamer1 gstreamer-plugins-ugly gstreamer-ffmpeg -y

Turn off GNOME animations
yum install dconf-editor -y

(Optional) VPN Cisco Anyconnect
yum install openconnect pangox-compat -y

(Optional) Virtualisation
yum groupinstall 'Virtualization Hypervisor' -y
yum install virt-manager, qemu libguestfs-bash-completion -y

(Optional - wanting to add to your Win Domain environment)
yum install sssd realmd ntp -y

Configure and add machine to your DC, below is an example
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
realm join group.company.eu -U adminaccount

vi /etc/sudoers
## Allow root to run any commands anywhere
root    ALL=(ALL)       ALL
adminaccount@group.company.eu    ALL=(ALL)       ALL
group.dxi.eu\Domain_Admins     ALL=(ALL)       ALL

vi /etc/ntp.conf
server ntp1.int.company-ntpserver.eu
server ntp2.int.company-ntpserver.eu
server ntp3.int.compant-ntpserver.eu

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

If you want to boot straight into Desktop GUI
unlink /etc/systemd/system/default.target
ln -sf /lib/systemd/system/graphical.target /etc/systemd/system/default.target

Notes: When trying to enable"Global Dark Theme" causing the following error:

"Error writing setting", to fix:

1. cd ~/.config
2. mkdir gtk-3.0
3. cd gtk-3.0/
4. touch settings.ini
5. Log out
6. Log back in